Pastor compares Newtown massacre to Herod's slaughter of the innocents

The Rev. Andrew Wolfe, senior minister of Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood, Ala., preached a sermon Sunday on Herod's slaughter of the innocents. (File photo/The Birmingham News)

BIRMINGHAM - The Rev. Andy Wolfe, senior minister of Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood, scrapped his planned sermon Sunday morning and preached on Matthew 2:16-18, a passage that recounts Herod's slaughter of the innocents.

Herod, hearing of the birth of Jesus and the prophecy that he would be king, ordered all infants in Bethlehem killed.

"Now that story has been repeated once again," Wolfe said.

"To the slaughter of the innocents of Bethlehem, we must add the children of Newtown, and countless places around the world where human beings have seen violence as a way to solve their problems. We are tempted to look away, cover our eyes, pretend we don’t see, because what we see is so painful."

The killings of 20 elementary school students and six teachers in Newtown, Conn., joins a long list of killings including at Columbine High School, an Amish schoolhouse, and the Aurora, Colorado movie theater that risk desensitizing us, he said. "There are so many incidents we are numbed by them and we can only handle so much tragedy," Wolfe said.

Herod's slaughter of the innocents is an important part of the Christmas story, Wolfe said.

"These victims are our business as God’s people, people who know the full story of Christmas, the glory and the horror. If we are resolved to know the full story of Christmas, we must hear Rachel and the women of Bethlehem and the families of Newtown weeping for their children. For only in that way will be able to be moved to compassion and take our place beside the victims, and we will have the courage to face the demonic structures and the Herods of our world who lead us to violence."

America must focus on hope to avoid despair, Wolfe said.

"In the midst of evil there was good, and to not name that good and claim it is to allow evil have the only word, which we must not do," Wolfe said.

"Already we’ve heard wonderful stories of teachers who put themselves in harm’s way to protect and save children. We’ve seen law enforcement officers respond without fear, and first responders offering comfort at the cost of their own peace of mind. On Friday, we saw the worst that we humans are capable of, but we also saw the best; we saw undaunted courage, selfless devotion...

"We thank God for those who refused to turn their heads and look away, but who instead became the way for good to answer evil."

The shooter, Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother with her own gun before the assault on the school.

"We must also look into the face of the one who committed these senseless acts," Wolfe said.

"We cannot know the dark forces within this young man. Even if we knew the reasons it would not excuse the behavior. We all are accountable for our actions. We all must choose between darkness and light."

Christians are called to confront evil, Wolfe said.

"We must look into the face of Herod only so that we can name the evil that would undo all of us," he said.

"With our prayers for the victims, there must also be prayers for all who are lost in the darkness of our world, lest somehow they plunge all of us into their darkness....

"We must recognize that these individual acts of violence don’t happen in a vacuum. There is a backdrop; there is a context....

"We are in America the most religious people in the developed world, but we are also the most violent people. What happened on Friday was not an isolated incident and we know that."

Wolfe cited crime stastistics that show 2,700 children and teens were killed by gunfire in the United States in 2010. "If those children and teens were alive they’d fill 108 classrooms of 25 each," he said.

"We have to look at ourselves as a people," Wolfe said.

"We have to ask what are the causes of this culture of violence, a culture that sanitizes and glorifies violence, and then wonders why it happened....

"What we must not do is acquiesce to evil and to violence....

"So in the name of Jesus we must refuse to consent to a culture that promotes violence and acquiesces to the slaughter of innocents...

"What we must do is be a people of hope, and not a people of despair....

"The slaughter of those innocents was not the end of the story....

"Darkness came to Newtown on Friday morning, and we mourn today with those who mourn. In the darkness, there is a light that shall never be overcome.

"Today we proclaim that Emmanuel, God is with us, even in the pain, the brokenness and sorrow, and that is the meaning of Christmas."

You can listen to the full sermon here. Please comment below and let us know if you heard other noteworthy sermons by clergy in our area addressing the school shooting.